Life
Life is tough under any circumstances, but teachers' jobs are getting harder and harder. I taught Special Education for almost 30 years and I was dealing with things I never dreamed of facing. I found two tricks that got me through. The first is to find another faculty member that you can trust completely....someone you can cry with and laugh with. The second is the universal comforter....chocolate. I came to school an hour and a half before contract time so I could get some of the mounds of paperwork Special Education has to do, because about 30 minutes before contract time the teachers would start stopping in my room. I always had the nice soft tissues, a large assortment of chocolate and a fridge full of Diet Coke. Then I would mostly listen and hand out vast amounts of tissues and hugs. I found that most teachers just wanted to be heard.
Nice! Teachers are under appreciated all the time. They have the biggest influence on our children, and their future. So thank you for the act of kindness your doing for these teachers.
Fantastic post, Ken. I'm a semi-retired educator: Early Childhood Education. Everything you said was so true. It does not help that the emphasis has been on testing, testing, testing, for too long now. Big pressure for a 'number score' that does NOT give an accurate picture of "the whole child." I believe it's important to teach the whole child: strengths, weaknesses, fears, enthusiams, individual personality- by making a connection to each child. Testing (and record-keeping overkill) eat up too much time. I know that my colleagues in Spec Ed had even more documentation to do than I did, as a Kindergarten teacher (and mine was extensive). Keep fighting the good fight! We can also hope that, after the current political climate ends (and DeVos is long gone!), politicians might look for ways to reduce testing, and trust teachers once again to understand what's best for the needs of students!